Monday, November 7, 2011

Get used to the name Foxconnn,
as its corporate logo will almost certainly be printed on the chests of
our future machine overlords. The Taiwanese company (although one of
China’s largest employers) responsible for (among other things)
assembling Apple‘s various iPhones
is moving ahead with plans to fill its workforce with a larger number
of machine minds. Company chairman Terry Gou signed a letter of intent
this week with Taichung mayor Jason Hu that lays out the company’s plan
to build a production facility described as an “intelligent robotics
kingdom” in the Central Taiwan Scienec Park, Focus Taiwan reports.

Gou
expects to see a $4 billion dollar value from the investment as the
plant comes together over the next three to five years. As many as 2,000
jobs will be created to brings this plan together, though the long-term
view of such a move will ultimately end up putting people out of work....MORE

The nondescript stretch of asphalt is an unlikely symbol of Brazil's attempt to lift its economy into a new high-tech era.

If officials in the industrial
town of Jundiai get their way, it will soon be named Steve Jobs road --
in homage to the late Apple Inc co-founder and a nod to the expected
windfall that producing iPads and iPhones here will bring.

Brazil's
government has loudly proclaimed a deal it says is worth $12 billion
for Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn to produce iPads and build a
whole new industry based around screens used in an array of consumer
electronics from smartphones to televisions.

But
the infamous "Brazil cost" -- shorthand for the bureaucracy and high
taxes that plague business in the country -- is already overshadowing
the deal, complicating negotiations with Foxconn over the broader
investment plan. The likely need for large state subsidized loans to
lure Foxconn also revives concerns about the state's heavy hand in
Brazil's economy....MORE